IBD Just Gel - glitter polish woes

[Animac]

Hi all. I absolutely love my IBD range, but as beautiful as their glitter ranges are, I can never get a consistent application on all fingers. The first nail is always perfect, but for the following nine, I have to shake the bottle between each application. Even so, the amount of glitter is never as good as the first nail. I end up having to layer the polish on the other nails, but then I am wary of overly thick nails.

Does anyone have a solution to this? I thought about tipping some into a dappen dish, but wondered if there was another way.

Thanks.

 

[Carla-laa]

I feel your pain, glitter polish can be a bit hit or miss. I use ibd and my absolute worst for this problem is Avant garde, one with strands and dots, I actually stopped offering it cos it was so impossible to get all the nails to look similar.
But back to the glitter, do you ever use loose glitter? I find you get much better results using loose glitter than glitter polish x

 

[Animac]

That's interesting, and mine are the Calligraphitti range, plus Yachta-Yachta-Yachta and Glitterazzi. They're barely used because it's such a faff.

I haven't worked with loose glitter for ages - I did wonder about that though. I'd imagine you can get differently shaped pieces to mimic the look of the IBD gel (even though we shouldn't have to).

I think I'm a bit late to the glitter party, so I'm off to the wholesalers

 

[maristar]

I love ibd, but not the glitters! I know what you mean about the first nail being great! I find when you first pull out the brush, there's heaps of glitter on it. But after that, it's almost impossible to get glitter on the brush.
A trick someone taught me was to pour out some of the clear gel. You'll notice will the glitters, that it sinks to the bottom. So before you roll/shake the polish, after its sat for a day or so, just pour out some of the clear gel. Yes, it is a waste, but I find I get more glitter that way.

 

[cheeka]

I saw a nifty little trick on youtube - the glitter polish was applied to a make up sponge, and then dabbed onto the nail. The sponge soaks up some of the polish so you're left with a higher glitter content, and more sparkly nails

This was done using a regular glitter polish, but I don't see why it wouldn't work with glittery gel polishes too - you'd just need to work with a smaller bit of sponge (so you can control placement more precisely) and possibly a skin barrier so you avoid contact with the skin around the nail.. If you don't wear gloves, hold the sponge with tweezers, or make a sponge holder out of one of the plastic caps from your brushes to protect your own skin.

All that said, I always use loose glitters when I want some sparkle - it's quick and easy and gives great results every time

 

[Animac]

That's a great tip, Cheeka! I'll give it a bash when I do my own nails later today, and I'll report back with results.

Thanks

 

[Persephannie]

I saw a nifty little trick on youtube - the glitter polish was applied to a make up sponge, and then dabbed onto the nail. The sponge soaks up some of the polish so you're left with a higher glitter content, and more sparkly nails

This was done using a regular glitter polish, but I don't see why it wouldn't work with glittery gel polishes too - you'd just need to work with a smaller bit of sponge (so you can control placement more precisely) and possibly a skin barrier so you avoid contact with the skin around the nail.. If you don't wear gloves, hold the sponge with tweezers, or make a sponge holder out of one of the plastic caps from your brushes to protect your own skin.

All that said, I always use loose glitters when I want some sparkle - it's quick and easy and gives great results every time

I was going to mention the sponge method too. I saw it on SimplyNailogical's youtube channel..

 

[Karina B]

I have just switched to IBD glitter! I had got ACG Dazzled, luckily I did it on myself, because every nail had a different amount of glitter on, then out of frustration I shook the bottle and got too much glitter and the last nails was too much!

I got the IBD fireworks (I know you're not supposed to mix products, but it was the only glitter I liked!), used on a client yesterday over black, it looked absolutely stunning. Will definitely be wearing it myself when winter starts drawing in!

 

[Sara-Jane]

I was going to mention the sponge method too. I saw it on SimplyNailogical's youtube channel..

Same here!